Recently Seattle was host to
an event that theoretically could have had far greater ramifications than
the much heralded Asian Pacific Economic Conference. Gabriel of Sedona
was coming to town to "Channel a Transmission" in order "To
Bring Continuing Fifth Epochal Revelation to our Planet Urantia."With a scant few days'
notice many Urantia Book readers in the Seattle area received a flyer informing
us that Gabriel of Sedona, "Mandated Vessel for: The Bright
and Morning Star of Salvington, Head Administrator of our Local Universe,
the Finaliter Paladin, and The Present Planetary Prince Machiventa Melchizedek",
was going to be appearing at a small church called the New Age Christian
Church in Seattle.

From the instant I opened the
announcement I felt strongly impressed with the need, even, perhaps, the
duty to be there. I was familiar with some of the writings coming
out of Sedona since I had somehow ended up on their mailing list and had
taken the time to read through each mail-out carefully. Being by
nature a skeptic and also a hard core reader of and believer in the Urantia
Book for many years, I was obviously not going to be attending this gathering
without some preliminary opinions. Yet I am always willing to consider
the possibility of learning something new which might further enrich my
spiritual life and I recalled vividly the wrords of Jesus to "Fail
not to discern the words of truth which come not through the traditional
oracles of supposed inspiration", and, again, "Divine truth must
not be discounted because the channel of its bestowal is not human."
(Page 1733)

On the day of the event, I
put in a solid ten hours of work in my usual occupation and was tired and
hungry and ready to see my wife and children; yet when I called Janet and
told her I felt compelled to attend the meeting and she encouraged me to
go.The setting
was a small church with approximately fifty or so persons in attendance
in the pews, several long-time readers from the area among them.
In front sat seven women and four men who introduced themselves one by
one as members of the community from Sedona, now functioning in various
positions in the "Planetary Government". Several narrated
their previous spiritual odysseys in detail and took pains to establish
their credentials as well educated, long-time truth seekers.

The Urantia Book received prominent
mention in these introductions. The former editor of "Six-0-Six",
the publication of the readers of the UB in Australia was there.
There was a PH.D. psychologist who spoke of hungrily reading through transcripts
of Gabriel's "transmissions" between client visits. Niann
the wife of Gabriel of Sedona spoke at length of her search for truth and
purpose. We were informed that forty more dedicated members of the
community were in Sedona, people of impeccable credentials, "from
all over the world".Much
was said of Gabriel's illustrious past, having been formerly incarnated
as Ikhnaton, David of the old testament,, St. Francis of Assisi, Martin
Luther, an apache warrior named Gentle Eagle and Simon Peter among others.
Still, it was said, he was just a regular guy from Pittsburgh who would
probably rather be "shooting some pool and drinking a beer",
if he had not been occupied witrh such momentous tasks as being the "walk-in"
or "mandated vessel" of high universe personalities.

Finally Gabriel himself emerged
from the rear door, dressed in a while outfit not unlike that worn by a
student of karate, white headband and all. He seemd affable enough
and proceeded to recount his personal history in this particular incarnation
as the son of a steel worker who became involved in the charismatic catholic
movement, a worker on the Nikki Cruz evangelical crusades for some years,
a musician who turned down financial success in Hollywood, because "they
wanted me to take God out of my music", director of a halfway house
for addicts undergoing rehabilitation, etc.

It was in the Superstition
Mountains of Arizona that he saw his first UFO and was contacted by "Skyhawk",
a spiritual being who informed Gabriel of his new responsibilities.After these fairly extensive
preliminaries, Gabriel gave way to "the Finaliter Paladin".
His voice became deeper and took on an odd accent, somewhat difficult to
characterize. He paced up and down the aisle, attempting to engage
the audience with direct eye contact, rambling on about a number of topics.
He talked of the coming "tribulation" and rescue of at least
some lucky mortals by spaceships; some would receive "bodies of light"
and be able to bypass death, while still others would remain on earth while
"millions perished". In his book THE DIVINE NEW ORDER,
he goes into great detail about his tribulation and evacuation event as
well as the physical holocaust which will strike the earth no later than
1998.

This would involve tremendous
storms and cataclysmic events such as earthquakes (including the loss of
most of the west coast (!) in a major shift of the tectonic plates.)He said that The Urantia
Book was only the "first tenth" of the fifth epochal revelation
and that he would be instrumental in bringing forth the rest, presumably
18,000 more pages of material similar to what we already have. He
preached about our greed and envy, and inquired when the last time was
"...you gave someone 50 cents who was in genuine need".

He became more tangential and
quoted Bradshaw about child rearing, ridiculing those of us who were raising
"rebellious brats" because we decline to spank the "fannies"
of our screaming children in the supermarket. At this point he bent
over with his generous buttocks toward the audience and spanked himself
loundly, then laughed and asked why we thought God had made fannies if
not to be spanked? By this time, several of the audience members,
clearly disenchanted with the "transmission" headed for the door.
Gabriel paused, pronounced God's blessing on those leaving and remarked,
still in his Paladin persona, that he had never been known for his ability
to make friends.

Gabriel then announced that
it was time for Gabriel of Salvington to arrive. Two assistants helped
him to don a long white robe and a shimmering headband. He hung a long
dangling earring from his ear. His voice changed again to a very
high pitched, squeaky voice. He spoke briefly about the feminine
aspects of the universe. When he stated that "Gabriel of Sedona
is the most highly evolved human being on the planet", I felt a sudden
impulse to respond.I
stood up from the pew and stated, "My brother, you are a false prophet!"

Yes, it was confrontational,
but by this time I was affronted by what I saw as a mockery of the Urantia
Book and values of truth and love. I believe I had two main motives
for my behavior: a strong need to point out to any new or potential
Urantia Book readers that Gabriel in no way fairly represented the teachings
of the Urantia Book, nor did he appear to be displaying the values contained
therein, or indeed, the fruits of the spirit as I understand them; secondly,
in my training as a political activist, I always held strongly to the idea
that "silence is the voice of complicity" and that I have a moral
duty to confront grievous error where it may cause harm to others.

In my past work this had led
me to occasionally publicly face off with politicians, elected representatives,
and others who were misleading the public about the effects of various
policy decisions.As
you might imagine, Gabriel was taken aback at my behavior. At first,
he invited me to explain my accusation, but as the dialogue proceeded he
became more belligerent and less tolerant of my behavior. No longer
speaking in his Gabriel of Salvington voice he accused me of being an intellectual
who knew the idea of God but whose heart had never accepted the reality
of God. "I know you", he thundered, "You are the arrogant
one!" He came and stood as close as the two people between us
would allow and asked, "When was the last time you gave 50 cents to
some in need?"

When I responded "Today."
he challenged me to prove it.During
what became an increasingly chaotic interchange I tried to remain utterly
calm and speak directly from my heart. I sought to avoid putting
the entire entourage on the defensive by stating that I did not question
any of their commitments to serve humanity, nor their purity of heart,
or love, but I did question their wisdom and the clarity of their thinking.
To Gabriel I said that he was using his ego for personal aggrandizement
and that it was clear that these supposedly divine pronouncements were
simply the voice of his own ego seeking attention and love from others.
I told him that he was misguided in his mission and that there was much
work that needed to be done in terms of service to humanity and in the
work of the fifth epochal revelation. I also told him I was truly
ashamed that anyone would think he had anything to do with the Urantia
Book or the community of readers whereupon he bellowed that he did not
represent the Urantia community. At least we agreed on this much.

By this time I was standing
directly in the aisle in front of him, face to face, and he was angrily
accusing me of "being rude and interrupting the voice of God."
I told him that I listened to God every day of my life and never interrupted.
Then one of the men in his entourage asked me to leave the church.
I paused a moment to consult my heart. I felt I had accomplished
my task. No other words seemed pressing to say and I could also see
that Gabriel was quite stressed. His ego appeared to be fragmenting
under the challenge. I left and was surprised to see that half of
those seated, all but one, strangers to me, stood up and followed me.

Once outside they hugged me
and thanked me for having stood up to the "false prophet".Throughout the event I
felt no animosity or anger in my heart toward Gabriel. In fact, I
sensed tremendous pain from him and felt love and pity toward him.
I pray that Gabriel will be able to set his feet back on the path of doing
the Father's will in his life.On
reflecting on the experience I recalled the story of the emperor's new
clothes and how each person was afraid to speak up about the obvious, for
fear of being branded a fool. Finally a child spoke the obvious and
everyone else was relieved to find that others also could not see the alleged
wondrous clothing.

Similarly, Jesus commends to
us the spiritual simplicity, not the mental immaturity of the child.
We were also admonished to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.
With the gifts of the Father's own spirit, the Spirit of Truth, the Adjutant
Mind Spirits, the Divine Minister and her ministering daughters, and all
the other loving benevolent spiritual influences with which we are blessed,
why would we need human "channels" through which to hear God's
message to us, his children? If Gabriel and Melchizedek are able
to assume human form at will, why invade the mind and body of a flawed
human being to impart presumably precious information to us?

Whoever Paladin is, it is interesting
to see how his words are direct plagiarism of the Urmia lectures (page
42, "third printing" of THE DIVINE NEW ORDER.)I believe that we must
always search our hearts for the truth of any idea or concept,and we must
always earnestly seek to listen for the voice of the Spirit of Truth in
all that we experience. I have no doubt in my mind about the "sordid
performance" I observed and feel at peace with my confrontational
behavior. I believe it is imperative that the "channeling"
phenomenon be thoroughly investigated and evaluated by those who have any
doubt about its true nature. The truth never suffers from honest
examination. Others will feel led to deal with it differently than
I, but if we remain passive and uninvolved, much damage may be done to
our sisters and brothers who are still young in the spirit and uncritically
accepting of all these potentially harmful falsehoods which are being attached
to our beloved fifth epochal revelation.

Whether confronting false prophets
and money-changers in the temple, or misguided, self-serving public servants
and policy-makers, confrontation can be a valuable tool for change as long
as we are able to keep love in our hearts and treat our opponents with
brotherly affection.

Part II: Still Nakedby Anthony Finstad

On the day of the visit to
Seattle by Gabriel of Sedona, (Nov. 20th, 1993), Keith had called me about
going to hear him. We had both received the invitation in the mail
just a couple days previously. As it turned out our schedules wouldn't
permit us to car pool together, so we agreed to meet each other at the
church. I mention this as an attempt to dispel any notion that this
was a prearranged attack by a couple of headstrong, closed-minded, UB fundamentalists
who were on a mission from Chicago to infiltrate, interrupt and harass.

Actually, it was all rather
spontaneous. We were invited, we attended, we listened and we responded
as individuals.Certainly
I'm in no position to judge all the Urantia movement's so called "teacher
mission" activities nor the many different reported "channeling"
episodes. I am, however, in a good position to share what happened
here in our community and to express my concern. I feel it's time
to expose some of this Urantia coded "spiritualism" for what
it is.Inez,
Mark French and I arrived at the church ten minutes late; the program had
already begun. This was our first clue that this was not to be the
usual Seattle Urantia gathering. We slipped into a back row pew and
recognized only four attendees as Urantia Book readers who have interracted
at any of our local activities.

We surmized that the remaining
four dozen or so were either from the church (New Age Christian) or people
who were responding to a generous advertisement placed in the Seattle Weekly
newspaper.Speaking
for myself, I believe I entered with a concerned heart and a curious mind
(even slightly open), much as I did when I witnessed the "Ham"
channeling production in Los Angeles (Feb. 1st, 1992). Perhaps much
the same mind as when I was introduced to the Urantia Book - cautiously
skeptical and yet eager to receive spiritual truth. To the best of
my limited ability I was in prayerful contact with my spiritual guidance.
I was thinking that if this has the blessing Michael and the Spirit of
Truth, I would certainly feel some kind of inner peace and comfort.

Conversely, if I felt there
was an absence of truth and an obvious misrepresentation fo the Urantia
Book and the Master's gospel, I prayed for the truth to act upon it.To give you a time perspective,
it was nearly one and a half hours into their show before Keith stood up
and confronted Gabriel. There was plenty of uninterrupted stage time
for Gab 'o Sed and his mandated vessel to produce some spiritual fruit.
It was fruitless.Gabriel's
impression of a Finaliter was filled with negative, scolding and demeaning
energy that was directed towards the "ignorant and unspiritual"
audience. In my opinion this was all coming from a human being.
Northing more, nothing less. He soon became angry and defensive --
much like the egocentric type of human that needs power, control and lots
of attention.

It seemed to me that Keith's
actions and timing were most appropriate and perhaps guided. There
was a natural desire for us all to stand up with him and walk out in united
support. However, we gave him a smile of support as he walked past
and then remained in the church where we would be of better service.
With more than half the seats now vacant, I was able to reposition myself
for more direct interaction with the stage.

Mr. Paladin was again in charge
(or so he thought). He continued to belittle Keith and righteously
defend himself. It was as if he had never been challenged before.
I find that hard to believe. Is Sedona a place where anything and
everything spiritual is accepted without question because it's the self-proclaimed
spiritual planetary headquarters? I heard Gabriel announce that this
was his third public appearance outside Sedona. What were his other
two receptions like, and where does he go from here? How many more
readers are out there willing to support this kind of cultish behavior?At any rate, Paladin went
on for several more minutes without further interruption until he sat back
down and asked if there were any questions.

Mark asked how we could all
receive the further writings of the revelation. Paladin answered
that we must come to Sedona and see the truth for ourselves. When
Mark calmly suggested that he shared no new revelatory information that
wasn't already available within The Urantia Book, Paladin once again became
angry and defensive. During the next five minutes he berated Mark,
telling him that he was helplessly stuck in his fourth psychic circle;
that Mark thought he was God's gift to women, that he should stop smoking
marijuana (Mark has been a non-smoker for decades), that he would die in
the big earthquake unless his cancer got him first.Imagine all this coming from a
personality that has successfullly traversed time and space, all billion
spheres of Havona, reached Paradise and been embraced by the Heavenly Father.
I think not. If this is the great reward I'm not interested in the
journey.

Then it was my turn.
To spare you all the details, "Pal" and I had several minutes
of interaction before it came down to this question and response.
I asked, "It's my understanding that a finaliter is a unique personality
expression of the Father's love and yet all I hear from you is human anger.
Where's the love?" Paladin's response came visually packaged
with a lot of body language; As he shook his head from side to side he
said, "Love, love, love...what is love? Bullshit!"At this moment the woman who operates the church
(Alice) stood up and asked them to leave, She said, "This is
a church of love and I cannot have you continue with this."Gabriel got up from his seat, turned to his
stage groupies and told them to stay behind to "take care of things."
He then walked off. Alice made yet another request for the
others to leave. The show was over.

I quickly invited those remaining to attend one of
our study groups. We handed out several Urantia cards and had the
opportunity to talk and answer questions. We also met with Alice
and talked about giving an introduction to The Urantia Book (from the human
perspective) at one of these Saturday evening gatherings.I'm sure the believers in the teaching mission and the
continuing papers of the fifth epochal revelation would never agree with
this public pronouncement of negative love. Who would? In fact,
I've read much of the so-called transmitted material that has been circulated
and it consistently suggests quite the opposite. The writings are
all about love, adjuster communion and everything beautiful...including
the material from Gabriel of Sedona! Something changed between those
clean writings of wisdom and when he theatrically got up there on the stage
(where I think most of these teachers would like to be.)

Then to be rudely confronted, challenged and questioned
by disbelieving readers who are not a part of the inner circle of ego-feeding
followers. How embarrassing.Was
it just a bad night in front of a tough audience? Did we mean little
humans expose a personality weakness in the Finaliter Paladin and during
this confusing episode we scared away the shy and timid Bright and Morning
Star of Nebadon? Perhaps it's nothing more than bad reception here
in Seattle with all the rain clouds hovering overhead.

After we finally closed out the church that evening,
there were five of us who walked outside and suddenly formed a prayer circle.
It was an uplifting spiritual experience. It came complete with the
personal presence of our collective group teacher. There was no need
to channel it or put a new age name to it. He was there. Not
just for the chosen few but for everyone, even us. No, God has not
stopped talking. Revelation happens every day. The planet is
filled with spiritual energy and great mystery. Let's rejoice and
praise God!We all want to serve and there
seems to be a perceived void in how to "channel" that burning
desire to evangelize.

Yet with all the kingdom-building opportunities that
are available to the inspired and courageous readers, why would a balanced
person choose to conveniently alter an epochal revelation, add some new
papers and then plagiarize other sections? Are we to believe God
is speaking through our new age friend and we should just take a leap of
faith into the desert? I'm not saying I know how to deal with these
kind of situations. I've been quietly ignoring them until now.
This one was hitting too close to home.